UN Relief Chief Calls for Humanitarian Access in Yemen

The UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Stephen O’Brien, on Tuesday concluded his three-day visit to Yemen, calling for all parties to grant humanitarian access and uphold their responsibilities to protect civilians in a conflict that has displaced three million people, injured and killed thousands of innocent civilians, a UN spokesman told reporters here.

Relevant parties should be also held accountable for shattering the civilian infrastructure, and destroying livelihoods in a country which was already suffering from endemic poverty, the deputy UN spokesman, Farhan Haq, said at a daily news briefing here.

In Hodeidah on Monday, O’Brien, who is also the UN emergency relief coordinator, was able to go to Al Honood, where he saw the devastation and terrible losses suffered from the airstrike on Sept. 21, Haq said.

Meanwhile, in Taiz, Yemen, at least 10 civilians, including six children, were killed, and 17 others wounded on Monday afternoon after an artillery shell struck a busy street next to a market in Bir Basha, Al Mudhaffar district, he said.

“The shell appeared to have been fired from an area in Al Ta’iziyah district, where the artilleries of Popular Committees affiliated with the Houthis and Army Units loyal to former president Saleh are positioned,” he said.

The overall casualty figures verified by UN human rights staff in Yemen from March 2015 up until Sept. 30, 2016 stand at a total of 10,963 civilian casualties, including 4,014 people killed, he added.